Not to toot my own horn, but I'm a pretty smart guy. I feel that way, and friends and family have said as much as well. Yeah, that sounds like I'm tooting my own horn, and of course good friends and family might lie to the dumbest member of the family. But I get the distinct impression that they really mean it. If I weren't at least slightly above average, I wouldn't have been in an honors program in both middle and high school, though I'll be the first to admit that I still haven't graduated from college after nearly 20 years... There are perfectly good reasons for that, and I'll talk about them another day.
That said, I've never been the best student I could be. I tried to never do homework, unless it was absolutely critical to passing the class, and until I got to college, I had only failed a single class in my life. And *THAT* was due to not doing my homework instead of not getting it; I got B's or better on all the quizzes and tests in that class, and I went to night school to retake it and graduate with my class.
In college, things got bad because I had a bad case of really not caring. I'd stop going to some classes half way through the semester and never tried unless it was a class I was really interested in. That's all related to some family and personal problems I started going through after I graduated from high school, and literally lasted for years afterwards. Again, I don't really want to talk about it right now, because I'm in too good a mood.
Basically, I haven't even attempted to take 3 classes at once since I attended Michigan State University from September 1990 through March 1991. When I took classes, it was usually one or two a semester, and about half the time I'd drop one or the other before the end of the semester. Ultimately, it's a miracle that I had 44 transferable credits by the time I got to Oakland University.
So, this semester, at the age of 37, I apparently got serious about my education, and decided to take 3 classes for 12 credit hours so that I could start pushing towards my degree. I was hoping to just not fail the classes, and I've been worried about my performance and grades all semester long. But tonight, I'm happy to report that not only did I pass the classes I took, but passed them with an average of 3.83 points out of 4.0 points. My best grades ever!
My only disappointment is that it took me this long to get this serious about my education, but for now I'm not going to worry about that. I'm already registered for my next 12 credit hours, and starting to worry about those classes...! LOL!
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Finally! Something to actually DO in PS Home...
I don't know if you're familiar with the PlayStation 3 or not, but there's a social program as part of it called Home. Until now, it's been a place to just hang out with other PS3 owners, play a few trivial games, and buy stuff for your avatar. Think Second Life PS3 style. Well, today they introduced Sodium One, which has some fairly good games within its spaces. And get this, the games are ACTUALLY fun! I wouldn't say I'd go out of my way to pay for the upgrades and the full versions of the games, but the free exposures to them actually make me want to continue to play them.
That only took a year! Microsoft's NXE still doesn't make me want to use it...
That only took a year! Microsoft's NXE still doesn't make me want to use it...
MysteryQuest on the History Channel can suck it!
Over the last few years, I have watched an increasing amount of programming on TLC, the Discovery Channel, and the History Channel. But I think I'm going to start cutting down on the History Channel stuff from here on out.
Like the subject suggests, MysteryQuest irritated the crap out of me just a bit ago. I watched the rebroadcast of an episode on the Bermuda Triangle (episode title "The Devil's Triangle"). As with any genuine scientific investigative program, I didn't really expect them to have an real answers in this 60 minute digest, but I did expect a modicrum of intelligence.
What pissed me off was that they recovered a propeller from a crashed plane, and were trying to identify it, not by the plainly visible serial number, but some etching dates they found in the same area. This would be the same as trying to identify someone by their birthdate when you have that and their social security number readily available. They screwed around with the etching dates, and found that they couldn't find a match on the plane with the NTSB. Duh! Then in the closing voice over they said they would continue to try to identify the plane by the serial number... Why didn't you idiots just focus on that?
Like the subject suggests, MysteryQuest irritated the crap out of me just a bit ago. I watched the rebroadcast of an episode on the Bermuda Triangle (episode title "The Devil's Triangle"). As with any genuine scientific investigative program, I didn't really expect them to have an real answers in this 60 minute digest, but I did expect a modicrum of intelligence.
What pissed me off was that they recovered a propeller from a crashed plane, and were trying to identify it, not by the plainly visible serial number, but some etching dates they found in the same area. This would be the same as trying to identify someone by their birthdate when you have that and their social security number readily available. They screwed around with the etching dates, and found that they couldn't find a match on the plane with the NTSB. Duh! Then in the closing voice over they said they would continue to try to identify the plane by the serial number... Why didn't you idiots just focus on that?
What the hell?
It's been a number of years since I've like Arnold Schwarzenegger, and I'm not going to say that I suddenly like him again, but I have to say that he's climbed a notch higher on my respectability ladder. It appears that even though I think he's clinically insane, and that he habitually lies to the residents of California, that Sarah Palin is more nutty than he is... These thoughts scare me.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Final Final...
This week is finals week at Oakland University, and I'll be glad when I'm done with my final final for this term tomorrow. The first two final exams went ok, I think, and I know that I passed both though neither went quite as smoothly as I had hoped.
I'm not disappointed with my performance on them; quite the opposite in fact considering I'm a 37 year old, taking 12 credit hours, in classes with people half my age. But I do wish that I had better prepared myself for the two that I have taken. Although I'm not exactly studying for my last final as I should be, I'm fairly confident that I will do very well on it tomorrow.
Next semester, if I'm still not employed, I'm going to try even harder than I did this semester.
I'm not disappointed with my performance on them; quite the opposite in fact considering I'm a 37 year old, taking 12 credit hours, in classes with people half my age. But I do wish that I had better prepared myself for the two that I have taken. Although I'm not exactly studying for my last final as I should be, I'm fairly confident that I will do very well on it tomorrow.
Next semester, if I'm still not employed, I'm going to try even harder than I did this semester.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Japanese Oral Interview: Aced.
Today, I had my oral interview in my Japanese class, and though I had feared it, I aced it. I want to send my thanks out to Professor Yasuda for being such a great teacher, and for being so patient with me and my fellow students!
A Few Thoughts on Japanese
The problem with Japanese is that it is Japanese. I love the language but honestly, it's as alien to a native English speaker as Klingon is. And vice versa, really, because English is a monster of a language composed of thousands of words from dozens of other languages, which (if there were some master language editor) could be greatly simplified to eliminate hundreds of words that mean the same damned thing. But I digress...
What I like about Japanese is that once you get the hang of the basic syntax, you're about halfway done learning the language. All you need then is to learn words to fill in the blanks, and master th pronunciation of most of those. Again, that's not to say it's easy, but it's easier than learning the sometimes contradictory rules of my native tongue.
The hardest thing about fully learning Japanese is Kanji: the Chinese writing system adapted by the Japanese hundreds of years ago. Rather than each symbol representing a sound or word, they represent ideas that must be interpreted and associated with syllables, words, or phrases. Given that there are thousands of Kanji it's no wonder that even they need a Kanji dictionary!
Any how, I have a oral interview in Japanese for my class in about an hour and a half. Wish me luck!
What I like about Japanese is that once you get the hang of the basic syntax, you're about halfway done learning the language. All you need then is to learn words to fill in the blanks, and master th pronunciation of most of those. Again, that's not to say it's easy, but it's easier than learning the sometimes contradictory rules of my native tongue.
The hardest thing about fully learning Japanese is Kanji: the Chinese writing system adapted by the Japanese hundreds of years ago. Rather than each symbol representing a sound or word, they represent ideas that must be interpreted and associated with syllables, words, or phrases. Given that there are thousands of Kanji it's no wonder that even they need a Kanji dictionary!
Any how, I have a oral interview in Japanese for my class in about an hour and a half. Wish me luck!
Monday, November 30, 2009
Connections
I've spent only a small amount of time today reading "The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film" by Michael Ondaatje and I find myself enthralled with it and angry that I didn't spend more time with it. I borrowed the book from my Film & Formal Analysis instructor, Dr. Heidi Kenaga, at Oakland University and I have to return it to her today.
It's really quite fascinating reading about Mr. Murch and his interactions and friendships with George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppula. It's even more interesting to put that into perspective with my friends, all of whom are creative, and most of which have inspired & pushed me.
Maxx and I have collaborated on many ideas, and I'm fairly sure there will be many more in the future. But it's fascinating to think that our friendship is of a similar nature, in some respects, as those of Murch, Lucas, and Coppula. Will there some day be a book chronicling our ventures, skills, and friendship?
It's really quite fascinating reading about Mr. Murch and his interactions and friendships with George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppula. It's even more interesting to put that into perspective with my friends, all of whom are creative, and most of which have inspired & pushed me.
Maxx and I have collaborated on many ideas, and I'm fairly sure there will be many more in the future. But it's fascinating to think that our friendship is of a similar nature, in some respects, as those of Murch, Lucas, and Coppula. Will there some day be a book chronicling our ventures, skills, and friendship?
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Switched Hosting Providers... Again...
After putting some more thought into it, and finding out about A2 Hosting through an attempt to find a work around a full text search limitation that HostNine forced upon me, I cancelled the account with HostNine and opened one with A2 Hosting. It's not only cheaper, but it comes with a modern version of PostgreSQL, one that includes full text search right off the bat. Now, there is a new limitation that I'll have to deal with versus HostNine: I can't host any porn... Sigh... Oh well, it's not like I was hosting porn before...! So no big deal...
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Switching Hosting Providers
For the last few years, I've run a number of web sites on West Host because they seemed to be stable, friendly, and offer a good deal considering the flexibility they offered. For instance, I was able to ssh into my VPS account and set up my preferred database system, PostgreSQL, and only use their supplied MySQL when I absolutely had to.
Well, earlier this year, West Host was purchased, and they began revising their plans on what features were offering to their customers. While I might be able to continue to ssh into the VPS in the near future, they're planning on eliminating the compiler and programming tools, which would mean that I would no longer be able to run PostgreSQL. As a result, I decided to switch to a different hosting provider.
After a few months of looking, evaluating, and flip-flopping, I opened an account with HostNine on Thursday. The reasons I chose HostNine are that they support and provide PostgreSQL right off the bat, and they're giving me unlimited disk space and bandwidth for a year for $20 more than I was paying per quarter for West Host. Needless to say, this is overall a much better deal.
That's not to say that my switch isn't going to be painful. After struggling to connect to my new server via ssh and sftp for hours, I filed a trouble ticket to figure out what's going on. It turns out that though these access methods are supported, I have to first fill out a form requesting secure access to the site via these methods. Fine. Moving on.
I then found that though I do have immediate PostgreSQL access, it's somewhat restricted. I don't have superuser access. Not really a huge deal. All of my database names and user-names are automatically prefixed by my account user name. Not a huge deal but kind of irritating that I'll have to go back through my various sites and update the database names and user-names. Something that I'll get over but again, it's irritating. Then there's the fact that it's an older version of PostgreSQL (8.1.8 instead of 8.3.x or 8.4.x) which combined with the lack of superuser access creates a whole world of hurt on recreating even one of my sites' databases. Oh, and I just had to file a trouble ticket to get full text search capabilities added to my database, and I suspect I'll have to file a new trouble ticket for every single database that I will need those features for. (Fortunately, not many at the moment.)
But the kicker for me was that last night, after several trouble tickets, I posted a message in their community forums asking if any one knew what I would need to do in order to set up a web accessible Subversion version control repository the proper way within the account. Less than an hour later, I was permanently banned from the forums for spamming. With a single message. That included no advertisements or spam like content. Yeah. I filed a new trouble ticket on that issue including their notification email and this morning that situation was resolved, but I'm already beginning to wonder if I should just abort this effort and try to find another host instead...
Well, earlier this year, West Host was purchased, and they began revising their plans on what features were offering to their customers. While I might be able to continue to ssh into the VPS in the near future, they're planning on eliminating the compiler and programming tools, which would mean that I would no longer be able to run PostgreSQL. As a result, I decided to switch to a different hosting provider.
After a few months of looking, evaluating, and flip-flopping, I opened an account with HostNine on Thursday. The reasons I chose HostNine are that they support and provide PostgreSQL right off the bat, and they're giving me unlimited disk space and bandwidth for a year for $20 more than I was paying per quarter for West Host. Needless to say, this is overall a much better deal.
That's not to say that my switch isn't going to be painful. After struggling to connect to my new server via ssh and sftp for hours, I filed a trouble ticket to figure out what's going on. It turns out that though these access methods are supported, I have to first fill out a form requesting secure access to the site via these methods. Fine. Moving on.
I then found that though I do have immediate PostgreSQL access, it's somewhat restricted. I don't have superuser access. Not really a huge deal. All of my database names and user-names are automatically prefixed by my account user name. Not a huge deal but kind of irritating that I'll have to go back through my various sites and update the database names and user-names. Something that I'll get over but again, it's irritating. Then there's the fact that it's an older version of PostgreSQL (8.1.8 instead of 8.3.x or 8.4.x) which combined with the lack of superuser access creates a whole world of hurt on recreating even one of my sites' databases. Oh, and I just had to file a trouble ticket to get full text search capabilities added to my database, and I suspect I'll have to file a new trouble ticket for every single database that I will need those features for. (Fortunately, not many at the moment.)
But the kicker for me was that last night, after several trouble tickets, I posted a message in their community forums asking if any one knew what I would need to do in order to set up a web accessible Subversion version control repository the proper way within the account. Less than an hour later, I was permanently banned from the forums for spamming. With a single message. That included no advertisements or spam like content. Yeah. I filed a new trouble ticket on that issue including their notification email and this morning that situation was resolved, but I'm already beginning to wonder if I should just abort this effort and try to find another host instead...
Monday, November 9, 2009
The Fort Hood Tragedy
With my fellow Americans, and I suspect a great deal of people around the world, I grieve with the families that have lost loved ones and I'm praying for the wounded. Words can't describe the impact of the tragedy adequately, but that's not why I'm writing tonight.
If Major Hasan is indeed the culprit, I fear and have feared that two further tragedies will and are occurring as a direct result of his actions: the damage to the Islamic image, and more importantly, that he will be artificially linked to terrorists.
Let's face it America, we've never fully recovered from the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and there are many of us that are looking to blame those faithful to Islam, are Muslim, or of Middle Eastern descent for just about anything at any given moment. Frankly, this attack, whether it was terrorist linked or just one random idiot going on a shooting spree couldn't have come at a worst time for the Islamic faithful. Between this and the shooting of Luqman Ameen Abdullah here in the Detroit area a few weeks ago because of his suspected terrorist plans, I'm beginning to think that many people are starting to look at the Islamic faithful as the followers of Hitler. They seem to be becoming the general purpose villains of 21st century America.
Let me share with you the opinions of one Baptist Christian man from Detroit: me. I have only known a few people, personally, that have followed the Islamic faith, but each and every one of them has been a decent and honest person. Here in Detroit, I have had a fair amount of exposure to people of various Middle Eastern descents, most of which I'm sure have been Islamic, whether I knew them personally or not. Aside from an incident with a family of Middle Easterners cutting in line in front of me to get the H1N1 vaccine a few weeks ago, I've never seen one try to do anything that was even remotely unfair. Even the Nation of Islam, Black Americans like myself, have generally done far more good than harm; It's interesting to note that the people that seem to think of those who follow Islam seldom stop to think about the long history of N.O.I.'s long presence in America, and only occasionally pipe up to call Louis Farrakhan various names.
Islam isn't the problem people. Yes, there are some extremists that are utilizing Islam and faith to encourage acts of terrorism, but I think that most people that blindly blame the religion are fools. For one thing, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are all branches of the very same religion. To call or to consider the religion or its followers evil is to essentially call Christianity or Judaism just as evil. Before condemning Islam, think of how many millions have died in the name of Christianity! Think of the slaughter of Native Americans, the slavery in America first of Africans then of their descendants for generations, the wars fought in Europe, all in the name of the Christian God! Do you think He wanted us to do this to one another? Just as those that caused those atrocities are a minority, so are the terrorists among the Islamic faithful, and we should not, and cannot blame or fear an entire religion because of it.
Then there's the other issue with regards to Major Hasan. As soon as I found out that he was of Middle Eastern descent, and that he was Islamic, I told my mother that they, the government and/or the media, was going to find a way to link him to terrorists. It doesn't matter whether or not he actually was a terrorist or not, or whether he might have had some contact with terrorists, he was automatically doomed to be linked to them. Sometimes, I really hate to be right. It took a little longer than I thought it would, but some connections are already being drawn. Now, I don't know the truth in this matter, but neither does anyone else at this point. What I am afraid of, however, is that Hasan will be used as a political tool to support the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, whether he really has terrorist connections or not. Even now, I'm sure that the FBI and various intelligence agencies are trying to track down every last individual that has attended the Virginia mosque for years before and after the 9/11 terrorists and Major Hasan attended it. Background checks are being run, and I have little doubt that one will be run on me for my comments here, and surveillance plans are being formulated. All with the hopes of first making some political gain for one side or another, and second in the hopes of protecting the American people. Why can't Hasan have simply done as many others have done: just fucking snap? Did the kids that shot up Columbine have terrorist links too? How about those bank robbers in Los Angeles back in 97 or so, that had a running gun battle with police? How about any of the other mad men that have shot up schools, malls, or other gatherings of people in the last 15 years...? What's being done to protect us from them? Not every nut is a fucking terrorist! But since 9/11, any time an Arab or follower of Islam does something abhorrent, they're automatically a terrorist, and it's just a short time before they're found to have terrorist links...
Hell, even with Luqman Ameen Abdullah, he was already being branded a terrorist by the FBI the day he was killed. I'm not saying I believe in Abdullah's ideas or ideals, but God knows there are a lot of other people in America that have weapons stockpiles that AREN'T considered terrorists.
So what do I want on this second issue? I want truth. I want honest investigation of Hasan and Abdullah, and I want the American people to be told the full truth of what is discovered. If real terrorist links with valid evidence is unearthed, then fine, brand them terrorists. But if not, then tell us the truth. Don't start throwing people under the bus to rally political support; that's un-American.
And above all other things, people, don't give into blind fear, hate, or trust. Go into all things with your eyes and minds open, and trust what your gut, mind, and your God tell you.
If Major Hasan is indeed the culprit, I fear and have feared that two further tragedies will and are occurring as a direct result of his actions: the damage to the Islamic image, and more importantly, that he will be artificially linked to terrorists.
Let's face it America, we've never fully recovered from the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and there are many of us that are looking to blame those faithful to Islam, are Muslim, or of Middle Eastern descent for just about anything at any given moment. Frankly, this attack, whether it was terrorist linked or just one random idiot going on a shooting spree couldn't have come at a worst time for the Islamic faithful. Between this and the shooting of Luqman Ameen Abdullah here in the Detroit area a few weeks ago because of his suspected terrorist plans, I'm beginning to think that many people are starting to look at the Islamic faithful as the followers of Hitler. They seem to be becoming the general purpose villains of 21st century America.
Let me share with you the opinions of one Baptist Christian man from Detroit: me. I have only known a few people, personally, that have followed the Islamic faith, but each and every one of them has been a decent and honest person. Here in Detroit, I have had a fair amount of exposure to people of various Middle Eastern descents, most of which I'm sure have been Islamic, whether I knew them personally or not. Aside from an incident with a family of Middle Easterners cutting in line in front of me to get the H1N1 vaccine a few weeks ago, I've never seen one try to do anything that was even remotely unfair. Even the Nation of Islam, Black Americans like myself, have generally done far more good than harm; It's interesting to note that the people that seem to think of those who follow Islam seldom stop to think about the long history of N.O.I.'s long presence in America, and only occasionally pipe up to call Louis Farrakhan various names.
Islam isn't the problem people. Yes, there are some extremists that are utilizing Islam and faith to encourage acts of terrorism, but I think that most people that blindly blame the religion are fools. For one thing, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are all branches of the very same religion. To call or to consider the religion or its followers evil is to essentially call Christianity or Judaism just as evil. Before condemning Islam, think of how many millions have died in the name of Christianity! Think of the slaughter of Native Americans, the slavery in America first of Africans then of their descendants for generations, the wars fought in Europe, all in the name of the Christian God! Do you think He wanted us to do this to one another? Just as those that caused those atrocities are a minority, so are the terrorists among the Islamic faithful, and we should not, and cannot blame or fear an entire religion because of it.
Then there's the other issue with regards to Major Hasan. As soon as I found out that he was of Middle Eastern descent, and that he was Islamic, I told my mother that they, the government and/or the media, was going to find a way to link him to terrorists. It doesn't matter whether or not he actually was a terrorist or not, or whether he might have had some contact with terrorists, he was automatically doomed to be linked to them. Sometimes, I really hate to be right. It took a little longer than I thought it would, but some connections are already being drawn. Now, I don't know the truth in this matter, but neither does anyone else at this point. What I am afraid of, however, is that Hasan will be used as a political tool to support the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, whether he really has terrorist connections or not. Even now, I'm sure that the FBI and various intelligence agencies are trying to track down every last individual that has attended the Virginia mosque for years before and after the 9/11 terrorists and Major Hasan attended it. Background checks are being run, and I have little doubt that one will be run on me for my comments here, and surveillance plans are being formulated. All with the hopes of first making some political gain for one side or another, and second in the hopes of protecting the American people. Why can't Hasan have simply done as many others have done: just fucking snap? Did the kids that shot up Columbine have terrorist links too? How about those bank robbers in Los Angeles back in 97 or so, that had a running gun battle with police? How about any of the other mad men that have shot up schools, malls, or other gatherings of people in the last 15 years...? What's being done to protect us from them? Not every nut is a fucking terrorist! But since 9/11, any time an Arab or follower of Islam does something abhorrent, they're automatically a terrorist, and it's just a short time before they're found to have terrorist links...
Hell, even with Luqman Ameen Abdullah, he was already being branded a terrorist by the FBI the day he was killed. I'm not saying I believe in Abdullah's ideas or ideals, but God knows there are a lot of other people in America that have weapons stockpiles that AREN'T considered terrorists.
So what do I want on this second issue? I want truth. I want honest investigation of Hasan and Abdullah, and I want the American people to be told the full truth of what is discovered. If real terrorist links with valid evidence is unearthed, then fine, brand them terrorists. But if not, then tell us the truth. Don't start throwing people under the bus to rally political support; that's un-American.
And above all other things, people, don't give into blind fear, hate, or trust. Go into all things with your eyes and minds open, and trust what your gut, mind, and your God tell you.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Thank God for Our Daily Miracles
How many times have you sincerely thanked God recently? I am firmly of the opinion that when something good in your life happens, you should thank Him. I'm not just talking about the big stuff; I mean a lot of the little miracles he blesses us with on a daily basis.
Take, for example, the relatively insignificant event of me pulling into my school's parking lot this morning, and finding a spot quickly. This is a routine and otherwise unremarkable event. Or is it? While I prefer to park in Oakland University's Lot 1, it is the most common lot for people to park in, so it's usually quite full as it was this morning. In fact, it's usually so full that I usually don't try to find a spot there any more, and settle for Lot 3 further away. But today, I entered the lot, made a few turns that I didn't particularly want to make, and found a large spot staring me in the face. Despite the numerous other cars circling the lot looking for a space, one was presented to me uncontested and quickly. While this was an world changing event, it was just another one of God's daily miracles.
This isn't the only example; take those occasions when you happen to have just enough money for something you spontaneously decided to buy. Or perhaps when some stranger willingly helps you when you need it the most, and doesn't even wait for a "thank you." There are miracles in our lives daily, we just have to learn to see them for what they are. Then when you do recognize God's hand in your life, if only for that brief, insignificant moment, tell Him "thank you", and mean it from the bottom of your heart.
Take, for example, the relatively insignificant event of me pulling into my school's parking lot this morning, and finding a spot quickly. This is a routine and otherwise unremarkable event. Or is it? While I prefer to park in Oakland University's Lot 1, it is the most common lot for people to park in, so it's usually quite full as it was this morning. In fact, it's usually so full that I usually don't try to find a spot there any more, and settle for Lot 3 further away. But today, I entered the lot, made a few turns that I didn't particularly want to make, and found a large spot staring me in the face. Despite the numerous other cars circling the lot looking for a space, one was presented to me uncontested and quickly. While this was an world changing event, it was just another one of God's daily miracles.
This isn't the only example; take those occasions when you happen to have just enough money for something you spontaneously decided to buy. Or perhaps when some stranger willingly helps you when you need it the most, and doesn't even wait for a "thank you." There are miracles in our lives daily, we just have to learn to see them for what they are. Then when you do recognize God's hand in your life, if only for that brief, insignificant moment, tell Him "thank you", and mean it from the bottom of your heart.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
My Film Sense Must Be Fucked...
I blame Maxx.
While I have always enjoyed watching movies, it's only been since I've known Maxx that I started watching some of the really strange stuff, and some of the really bad stuff. In all honesty, he's made me into a movie critic, and a connoisseur of well written movies. That's a really good thing I owe him. He and Omar are as much my brothers as my actual blood siblings are, and they are both responsible for pushing me creatively speaking more than most people I've known. They are directly responsible for my sick and twisted sense of humor.
You hear that world? You can blame them!!
Now, tonight's blamestorming session is focusing on two movies that I've partaken of in the last three days. One was a big multi-million dollar blockbuster release, and the other seems to have been a little independent film that was trying to go viral through the net a couple years ago. But before I go into the movies, I want to point out some facts that lay further blame on Maxx.
Many moons ago, Maxx and I went to the same high school, along with Omar. I was already hanging out with the bad crowd, psycho-nerds like myself, starring Omar and a few other sick and twisteds. Omar later introduced me to Maxx who subsequently disappeared and resurfaced a few years later as Omar was headed into the Air Force. Maxx and Omar both encouraged me to push myself as a writer, and to come up with stories that were interesting to say the least. Maxx, a former film student, but a kick ass artist, would likewise push himself artisticly. Now, considering that I, more than 15 years later, am a cinema studies student, I feel that I can confidently blame Maxx directly and indirectly for this post. This one's for you Maxx!
Now, on to the films... The blockbuster you may have heard of ran epic looking commercials with the title character screaming his introduction in a voice reminiscent of 300's King Leonidas. I speak of none other than Beowulf. Many, many, many moons ago, long before I ever met either Omar or Maxx, before I even entered high school, I had heard of and read a small portion of the great epic poem known as Beowulf. In high school, a friend of ours based some of his characters in our role playing games off a combination of Grendel and Marvel Comics' Wolverine. Needless to say, I was greatly looking forward to seeing the movie once it was announced, and I was even more eager after seeing the commercials. For reasons that I shall not discuss, it didn't happen...
Until Friday morning.
Just before I was to leave for school on Friday morning, I discovered that Beowulf was on some random cable channel; I don't know if it was HBO, Cinemax, Showtime or what, but I sat down and watched about a half hour's worth of the movie. What I saw left me completely speechless.
I hated every second I watched. I know that computer animation has become a large part of the movie industry, particularly for special effects, and God knows I love animated movies, CG and otherwise, but I was not even slightly impressed with Beowulf the movie. I had been under the impression that the movie was live action, and to be honest, I'm not 100% sure it wasn't live action, but there were enough telltales for a guy like me to determine that it was at the very least significantly computer enhanced where it didn't need to be. Watching it reminded me of half remembered, half thought out rumors that the movie wasn't what my friends and social circle at the time wanted to see, and I'm definitely glad I didn't pay money for it. Now, that's not to say that it was all bad... I did enjoy some of the chanting songs that were being sung by the characters at various parts, and I certainly think that they were the high points of the film. You can probably guess, though, that Beowulf is now being removed from my "To Buy on Blu-Ray" list...
The other film is more complicated. I was watching TV, looking for something that might catch my attention and amusement for a little while when I stumbled across it. It looked like it was going to be cheap soft-porn, based on the name and description given to me by the satellite TV network, and I thought to myself "What the hell... Why not?". Now, I'm not going to say that I'm always up for porn. Frankly, while I do occasionally enjoy partaking, I'm really not into the made for cable soft-porn that even hardcore porn stars think is disgusting. (For different reasons of course. The bottom line is that at least hardcore porn is honest, with people actually having sex, while the soft porn is just faked all around without even the decency to have a good plot.) But being a hetero male in America, I was hoping to see some boobs. So, given the title and description of Zerophilia, I was intrigued and curious about exactly what they were going to do.
I'm not going to lie and tell you that it was the best movie ever. I'm not even going to tell you that it was a better movie than Beowulf. But the bottom line is that I actually enjoyed Zerophilia more than Beowulf, and I definitely think that it had potential. While Zerophilia did indeed have a couple of scenes with the naked breasts of twenty something young women and talked about sex and gender quite a bit, it actually wasn't porn of any kind. It was a real movie with an interesting plot, though it was a bit weak in some respects. The basic plot, for the lazy, is that a young man discovers that he changes gender when he's sexually aroused after having his first sexual encounter with a woman, and of course he meets the girl of his dreams just days later.
I can't say how I'd improve Zerophilia, because certain things were just plainly obvious to me right from the beginning, but I can't see how those points could have been done any differently. I think I might have gone in a different direction with the main character's discovery and exploration of his feelings about his gender, and I probably would have done without a plot twist near the end altogether. But the thing that is probably most important to Martin Curland, the writer/director/producer of the film, is that I enjoyed the movie more than Beowulf.
Mr. Curland, I'm a nobody [at the moment], but I'd like to see what you're working on next, and see if I can contribute to it in some way!
So, as you can see, while I ended up disappointed with both films for different reasons, at least I enjoyed watching one of them. And I think the key reason in both cases is my long experience watching movies, analyzing movies with Maxx and Omar, and getting an early schooling on a number of things film related by Maxx. Ultimately, I blame Maxx for this, and I think you should too! On three, everyone shout (with feewing!) "Thanks Maxx!"
While I have always enjoyed watching movies, it's only been since I've known Maxx that I started watching some of the really strange stuff, and some of the really bad stuff. In all honesty, he's made me into a movie critic, and a connoisseur of well written movies. That's a really good thing I owe him. He and Omar are as much my brothers as my actual blood siblings are, and they are both responsible for pushing me creatively speaking more than most people I've known. They are directly responsible for my sick and twisted sense of humor.
You hear that world? You can blame them!!
Now, tonight's blamestorming session is focusing on two movies that I've partaken of in the last three days. One was a big multi-million dollar blockbuster release, and the other seems to have been a little independent film that was trying to go viral through the net a couple years ago. But before I go into the movies, I want to point out some facts that lay further blame on Maxx.
Many moons ago, Maxx and I went to the same high school, along with Omar. I was already hanging out with the bad crowd, psycho-nerds like myself, starring Omar and a few other sick and twisteds. Omar later introduced me to Maxx who subsequently disappeared and resurfaced a few years later as Omar was headed into the Air Force. Maxx and Omar both encouraged me to push myself as a writer, and to come up with stories that were interesting to say the least. Maxx, a former film student, but a kick ass artist, would likewise push himself artisticly. Now, considering that I, more than 15 years later, am a cinema studies student, I feel that I can confidently blame Maxx directly and indirectly for this post. This one's for you Maxx!
Now, on to the films... The blockbuster you may have heard of ran epic looking commercials with the title character screaming his introduction in a voice reminiscent of 300's King Leonidas. I speak of none other than Beowulf. Many, many, many moons ago, long before I ever met either Omar or Maxx, before I even entered high school, I had heard of and read a small portion of the great epic poem known as Beowulf. In high school, a friend of ours based some of his characters in our role playing games off a combination of Grendel and Marvel Comics' Wolverine. Needless to say, I was greatly looking forward to seeing the movie once it was announced, and I was even more eager after seeing the commercials. For reasons that I shall not discuss, it didn't happen...
Until Friday morning.
Just before I was to leave for school on Friday morning, I discovered that Beowulf was on some random cable channel; I don't know if it was HBO, Cinemax, Showtime or what, but I sat down and watched about a half hour's worth of the movie. What I saw left me completely speechless.
I hated every second I watched. I know that computer animation has become a large part of the movie industry, particularly for special effects, and God knows I love animated movies, CG and otherwise, but I was not even slightly impressed with Beowulf the movie. I had been under the impression that the movie was live action, and to be honest, I'm not 100% sure it wasn't live action, but there were enough telltales for a guy like me to determine that it was at the very least significantly computer enhanced where it didn't need to be. Watching it reminded me of half remembered, half thought out rumors that the movie wasn't what my friends and social circle at the time wanted to see, and I'm definitely glad I didn't pay money for it. Now, that's not to say that it was all bad... I did enjoy some of the chanting songs that were being sung by the characters at various parts, and I certainly think that they were the high points of the film. You can probably guess, though, that Beowulf is now being removed from my "To Buy on Blu-Ray" list...
The other film is more complicated. I was watching TV, looking for something that might catch my attention and amusement for a little while when I stumbled across it. It looked like it was going to be cheap soft-porn, based on the name and description given to me by the satellite TV network, and I thought to myself "What the hell... Why not?". Now, I'm not going to say that I'm always up for porn. Frankly, while I do occasionally enjoy partaking, I'm really not into the made for cable soft-porn that even hardcore porn stars think is disgusting. (For different reasons of course. The bottom line is that at least hardcore porn is honest, with people actually having sex, while the soft porn is just faked all around without even the decency to have a good plot.) But being a hetero male in America, I was hoping to see some boobs. So, given the title and description of Zerophilia, I was intrigued and curious about exactly what they were going to do.
I'm not going to lie and tell you that it was the best movie ever. I'm not even going to tell you that it was a better movie than Beowulf. But the bottom line is that I actually enjoyed Zerophilia more than Beowulf, and I definitely think that it had potential. While Zerophilia did indeed have a couple of scenes with the naked breasts of twenty something young women and talked about sex and gender quite a bit, it actually wasn't porn of any kind. It was a real movie with an interesting plot, though it was a bit weak in some respects. The basic plot, for the lazy, is that a young man discovers that he changes gender when he's sexually aroused after having his first sexual encounter with a woman, and of course he meets the girl of his dreams just days later.
I can't say how I'd improve Zerophilia, because certain things were just plainly obvious to me right from the beginning, but I can't see how those points could have been done any differently. I think I might have gone in a different direction with the main character's discovery and exploration of his feelings about his gender, and I probably would have done without a plot twist near the end altogether. But the thing that is probably most important to Martin Curland, the writer/director/producer of the film, is that I enjoyed the movie more than Beowulf.
Mr. Curland, I'm a nobody [at the moment], but I'd like to see what you're working on next, and see if I can contribute to it in some way!
So, as you can see, while I ended up disappointed with both films for different reasons, at least I enjoyed watching one of them. And I think the key reason in both cases is my long experience watching movies, analyzing movies with Maxx and Omar, and getting an early schooling on a number of things film related by Maxx. Ultimately, I blame Maxx for this, and I think you should too! On three, everyone shout (with feewing!) "Thanks Maxx!"
1
2
3
THANKS MAXX!!!!
Oh, and uh, go and Netflix Zerophilia. Throw some cash at Mr. Curland for being creative. You don't even have to feel guilty: you can watch it instantly instead of waiting for the DVD to arrive.
2
3
THANKS MAXX!!!!
Oh, and uh, go and Netflix Zerophilia. Throw some cash at Mr. Curland for being creative. You don't even have to feel guilty: you can watch it instantly instead of waiting for the DVD to arrive.
Friday, October 16, 2009
コーヒーはにほんであなたをのみます。
Ok, if you read and speak Japanese, you probably know that the title of this post is bad, and likely a mistake. Well, it's a mistake, but it was done intentionally. For those that don't speak Japanese, the title translates roughly to, "Coffee drinks you in Japan." Now, the reasons I wrote this title like this are two fold: first, while in my Japanese class today, we were working on using the de (で) particle, which denotes a place an action takes place, and on a couple occasions, I was placing the nouns in the wrong place, resulting in sentances like "Coffee drinks you in Japan." Second, there's a somewhat common meme that goes something along the lines of "In Russia, the coffee drinks you!"
Now, I didn't think about what I was screwing up in this second context until I was on my way home. When it suddenly occurred to me, I started laughing uncontrollably and decided to make this post. So, the translation of the title, in the spirit of this meme is, "In Japan, the coffee drinks you."
I had some other random things to say, but they've slipped my mind. If they come back to me, I'll make another post.
Now, I didn't think about what I was screwing up in this second context until I was on my way home. When it suddenly occurred to me, I started laughing uncontrollably and decided to make this post. So, the translation of the title, in the spirit of this meme is, "In Japan, the coffee drinks you."
I had some other random things to say, but they've slipped my mind. If they come back to me, I'll make another post.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Michelle Obama's Slave Ancestor and the U.S. Reaction To It
Last week, the New York Times apparently released a story that they had been researching for some time, that determined that Michelle Obama had an ancestor that was a slave here in the United States, and apparently the news was so shocking, NBC seemed to go out of their way to talk about it on several news programs (Today and NBC Nightly News) for at least two days. I wouldn't doubt that other channels also covered this story in depth. The thing is, I don't know what the big deal is. Or do I?
Being Black (I'm not African-American because I'm not from Africa) and growing up in Detroit, I got regular lessons on slavery, the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King, Jr., and most of the other slavery and civil rights related issues that Blacks faced here in the United States. While I'm not dismissing the significance of these things, I can say with certainty that to most Blacks that I know, the slave period of America isn't that big a deal any more. To have an ancestor that was a slave here? That covers far more than half of Black American families. We're not surprised that we had ancestors that were slaves less than 200 years ago, so why is every one else?
In fact, as my family and I discussed last week, we'd be very surprised if any Black family in America (whose ancestors were in the U.S. during the slavery period) today didn't have ancestors that were slaves. There are Blacks that have ancestors that came to the United States after slavery ended, but comparatively speaking, their numbers are tiny. I told my mother and sister this last week: you can take 100 Black Americans, at random, put them in a room, turn off the lights, reach out and touch any random person among them, and be over 99% confident that their ancestors were slaves in America.
So what's my point? We got over it. Yes, we're glad that we now have a Black president, but we're not sitting around waiting for him to invoke a slavery act to put Whites through what we went through. We're not waiting with baited breath for him to give us reparations for slavery... I sure as hell wouldn't know what to do with 40 acres and a mule, and I surely couldn't afford the taxes associated with the land.
In short, we celebrated Obama's victory in last year's presidential election because even though his father was not a slave here in America, his victory meant that we as a people have finally reached a level of equality here that our slave ancestors couldn't have dreamt about. It meant that we were that much closer to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream. That the country that we love has finally permitted us to participate in the highest office we as a country have.
I think the bottom line is that we Black Americans, whether we have the blood of slaves running through our veins or not, finally feel like complete Americans.
Being Black (I'm not African-American because I'm not from Africa) and growing up in Detroit, I got regular lessons on slavery, the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King, Jr., and most of the other slavery and civil rights related issues that Blacks faced here in the United States. While I'm not dismissing the significance of these things, I can say with certainty that to most Blacks that I know, the slave period of America isn't that big a deal any more. To have an ancestor that was a slave here? That covers far more than half of Black American families. We're not surprised that we had ancestors that were slaves less than 200 years ago, so why is every one else?
In fact, as my family and I discussed last week, we'd be very surprised if any Black family in America (whose ancestors were in the U.S. during the slavery period) today didn't have ancestors that were slaves. There are Blacks that have ancestors that came to the United States after slavery ended, but comparatively speaking, their numbers are tiny. I told my mother and sister this last week: you can take 100 Black Americans, at random, put them in a room, turn off the lights, reach out and touch any random person among them, and be over 99% confident that their ancestors were slaves in America.
So what's my point? We got over it. Yes, we're glad that we now have a Black president, but we're not sitting around waiting for him to invoke a slavery act to put Whites through what we went through. We're not waiting with baited breath for him to give us reparations for slavery... I sure as hell wouldn't know what to do with 40 acres and a mule, and I surely couldn't afford the taxes associated with the land.
In short, we celebrated Obama's victory in last year's presidential election because even though his father was not a slave here in America, his victory meant that we as a people have finally reached a level of equality here that our slave ancestors couldn't have dreamt about. It meant that we were that much closer to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream. That the country that we love has finally permitted us to participate in the highest office we as a country have.
I think the bottom line is that we Black Americans, whether we have the blood of slaves running through our veins or not, finally feel like complete Americans.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Strange Day...
Any one that knows me probably considers me strange. I'm not afraid of being strange or different, and everyone knows that. However, even I can have strange days. Today, thus far, has been one of the strangest I've had in a very long time...
I got up this morning, and got ready for class. I only have one class on Fridays, Japanese, and I was very much looking forward to it because it's currently my favorite class. Since it was raining, I decided I better leave earlier than I normally do, and got on the road at roughly 10:30 am. I made a quick stop to get a bit of gas, and that's when the first unusual thing happened. I say unusual because it's not strange just... unusual. For the last few months, I've been using a program on my phone (T-Mobile's G1) called "Mileage" which keeps track of your gas mileage, fuel costs, etc.. Today, I spent the exact same amount and got the exact same amount of gas that I did earlier in the week according to the app. Like I said, that's not particularly strange, but it is unusual given the way gas prices change and the amount of money I might happen to have that day. Any ways, it set the mood for the day.
I hopped on the freeway, headed North on I-75. About half a mile past 7 Mile Road, there was an accident on the freeway. A car had obviously spun out or something and was facing the wrong way near the center divider. On its side. Now, I can get facing the wrong way in rain... The road is slippery. No big surprise there. I could even understand the car being on its side if it were facing the right way: it might have hit the divider and tipped over. But backwards AND on its side? What the hell? Did it do somersaults and fail to stick the landing or something? Besides being on its side, it didn't seem to have a whole lot of damage, so, no, I don't think that's what happened...
Got to school, did the Japanese thing, had a good time. I decided to get an iced coffee in Oakland Center (Oakland University's student center building) before I hit the road. While standing in line, I saw some delicious looking brownies and decided to have one. After I ordered, I stood there confused and staring at the receipt while I waited for my drink. The medium Iced White Chocolate Mocha is priced $3.29, and the brownie costs $1.45. That's $4.74 right? Apparently, not according to the cash register. It decided the price was $6.09. I kept staring at the receipt thinking that maybe I was charged for whipped cream and/or the large size mocha, but I wasn't. I got a medium drink, no whipped cream. I did the math in my head, and double checked it with my phone. It couldn't be taxes, because that was $0.37 in addition to the $6.09. What I had encountered was a computer screwing up on REALLY SIMPLE math... The cashier didn't screw up, because the receipt showed the correct prices, it's just that the register's computer randomly decided to charge me more than a dollar extra for my goods. What the fuck? I spoke to the manager nicely and explained that the cashier hadn't done anything wrong, it's just some completely bizarre behavior out of their register. The manager rang it up on a different register which showed my total (including taxes) to be $5.02, and she triple checked on the register that gave me the wrong result, and it too showed the correct price now. So even they were freaked out about what happened... I made up my mind right then that I had to go buy a lottery ticket for tonight's MegaMillions drawing with that dollar...
Which of course lead to more strange occurrences. I almost always buy my lottery tickets at a grocery store in Highland Park on Woodward and Manchester, and since it was on my way home, it was easiest to stop there today. As I was coming off the freeway, I looked over and saw ANOTHER car on its side facing the wrong way on the freeway, and proceeded to wonder what's with this day. I slipped into the market, and got my ticket just before the cashier closed down the lottery station for her shift or lunch, and returned to my car. Now, there were two other people that had also just returned to their cars near me. One was in the next car over, on my passenger side, and the other was on her passenger side. The furthest car left without any problem, and I got myself together and backed out before the car adjacent to me was ready. Can you guess what happened?
That's right! The lady next to me backed into the front end of my car! We pulled back into our spots and looked at the damage on my car, which fortunately wasn't significant. It was really just a matter of exchanging paint. Sadly, my car has worse damage than that caused by my father (who owned the car before his passing several years ago) and some anonymous asshole that backed into my rear bumper at some parking lot last year. So I shrugged off the damage, and told the lady not to worry about it. It was just par for the course of my day, and we went merrily on our respective ways.
I got home and explained my day to my mother and told her that I was not going to leave my man-cave for the rest of the weekend without being dragged kicking and screaming out of it. She kindly suggested that I go and get another lottery ticket with a particular combination of numbers inspired by my drink prices, and drop off a letter at the post office. This is rare. My mother doesn't have anything against buying lottery tickets, but she almost never suggests that one be purchased. In her belief, this is probably God's way of giving me a hint about what to do, and given the odd day that I've had, with the completely bizarre cash register incident, that there must be something more to today than just the oddities. So I left the house once more, mailed the letter and got a second lottery ticket...
And I had another interesting incident... As I was driving back to the house, a car behind me suddenly sped up, swerved around me into the middle lane (I was in the left lane on a one way street), and made a left turn in front of me, sliding and screeching tires and all. I don't even want to know what the hell that was all about...
I don't know if I'll win the lottery tonight or not, I would really love to given the fact that I'm broke and have bills to pay, but I'll tell you this much, I'm damned near afraid to leave my room right now...
I got up this morning, and got ready for class. I only have one class on Fridays, Japanese, and I was very much looking forward to it because it's currently my favorite class. Since it was raining, I decided I better leave earlier than I normally do, and got on the road at roughly 10:30 am. I made a quick stop to get a bit of gas, and that's when the first unusual thing happened. I say unusual because it's not strange just... unusual. For the last few months, I've been using a program on my phone (T-Mobile's G1) called "Mileage" which keeps track of your gas mileage, fuel costs, etc.. Today, I spent the exact same amount and got the exact same amount of gas that I did earlier in the week according to the app. Like I said, that's not particularly strange, but it is unusual given the way gas prices change and the amount of money I might happen to have that day. Any ways, it set the mood for the day.
I hopped on the freeway, headed North on I-75. About half a mile past 7 Mile Road, there was an accident on the freeway. A car had obviously spun out or something and was facing the wrong way near the center divider. On its side. Now, I can get facing the wrong way in rain... The road is slippery. No big surprise there. I could even understand the car being on its side if it were facing the right way: it might have hit the divider and tipped over. But backwards AND on its side? What the hell? Did it do somersaults and fail to stick the landing or something? Besides being on its side, it didn't seem to have a whole lot of damage, so, no, I don't think that's what happened...
Got to school, did the Japanese thing, had a good time. I decided to get an iced coffee in Oakland Center (Oakland University's student center building) before I hit the road. While standing in line, I saw some delicious looking brownies and decided to have one. After I ordered, I stood there confused and staring at the receipt while I waited for my drink. The medium Iced White Chocolate Mocha is priced $3.29, and the brownie costs $1.45. That's $4.74 right? Apparently, not according to the cash register. It decided the price was $6.09. I kept staring at the receipt thinking that maybe I was charged for whipped cream and/or the large size mocha, but I wasn't. I got a medium drink, no whipped cream. I did the math in my head, and double checked it with my phone. It couldn't be taxes, because that was $0.37 in addition to the $6.09. What I had encountered was a computer screwing up on REALLY SIMPLE math... The cashier didn't screw up, because the receipt showed the correct prices, it's just that the register's computer randomly decided to charge me more than a dollar extra for my goods. What the fuck? I spoke to the manager nicely and explained that the cashier hadn't done anything wrong, it's just some completely bizarre behavior out of their register. The manager rang it up on a different register which showed my total (including taxes) to be $5.02, and she triple checked on the register that gave me the wrong result, and it too showed the correct price now. So even they were freaked out about what happened... I made up my mind right then that I had to go buy a lottery ticket for tonight's MegaMillions drawing with that dollar...
Which of course lead to more strange occurrences. I almost always buy my lottery tickets at a grocery store in Highland Park on Woodward and Manchester, and since it was on my way home, it was easiest to stop there today. As I was coming off the freeway, I looked over and saw ANOTHER car on its side facing the wrong way on the freeway, and proceeded to wonder what's with this day. I slipped into the market, and got my ticket just before the cashier closed down the lottery station for her shift or lunch, and returned to my car. Now, there were two other people that had also just returned to their cars near me. One was in the next car over, on my passenger side, and the other was on her passenger side. The furthest car left without any problem, and I got myself together and backed out before the car adjacent to me was ready. Can you guess what happened?
That's right! The lady next to me backed into the front end of my car! We pulled back into our spots and looked at the damage on my car, which fortunately wasn't significant. It was really just a matter of exchanging paint. Sadly, my car has worse damage than that caused by my father (who owned the car before his passing several years ago) and some anonymous asshole that backed into my rear bumper at some parking lot last year. So I shrugged off the damage, and told the lady not to worry about it. It was just par for the course of my day, and we went merrily on our respective ways.
I got home and explained my day to my mother and told her that I was not going to leave my man-cave for the rest of the weekend without being dragged kicking and screaming out of it. She kindly suggested that I go and get another lottery ticket with a particular combination of numbers inspired by my drink prices, and drop off a letter at the post office. This is rare. My mother doesn't have anything against buying lottery tickets, but she almost never suggests that one be purchased. In her belief, this is probably God's way of giving me a hint about what to do, and given the odd day that I've had, with the completely bizarre cash register incident, that there must be something more to today than just the oddities. So I left the house once more, mailed the letter and got a second lottery ticket...
And I had another interesting incident... As I was driving back to the house, a car behind me suddenly sped up, swerved around me into the middle lane (I was in the left lane on a one way street), and made a left turn in front of me, sliding and screeching tires and all. I don't even want to know what the hell that was all about...
I don't know if I'll win the lottery tonight or not, I would really love to given the fact that I'm broke and have bills to pay, but I'll tell you this much, I'm damned near afraid to leave my room right now...
Thursday, September 17, 2009
So far so good.
Yeah it's an ancient cliche, but it fits perfectly. Today is my third day of classes at Oakland University and I'm pleased overall at how things have gone.
To date, I've only missed one assignment: I failed to realize that the workbook assignments in my Japanese class did need to be done and turned in. I wrongly assumed they were for practice. Fortunately, the instructor excused it this time around because so many of us failed to do it.
My final class for the day is Film and Formal Analysis in about 30 minutes. Today's class should go by fairly quickly because we're watching the film Stagecoach. But I'm not really looking forward to Monday's class because it seems to drag on. Nonetheless I think I'll do ok there as well.
To date, I've only missed one assignment: I failed to realize that the workbook assignments in my Japanese class did need to be done and turned in. I wrongly assumed they were for practice. Fortunately, the instructor excused it this time around because so many of us failed to do it.
My final class for the day is Film and Formal Analysis in about 30 minutes. Today's class should go by fairly quickly because we're watching the film Stagecoach. But I'm not really looking forward to Monday's class because it seems to drag on. Nonetheless I think I'll do ok there as well.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Why I Love Google...
I'm not going to go into details, because any of you familiar with the internet and internet memes will figure it out quickly, but here's a link as to why I love Google:
Google's O Disappears, Abducted By Aliens
Google's O Disappears, Abducted By Aliens
Saturday, September 5, 2009
The Start of September
Ok, so this year is flying by, and I still haven't caught my breath. This is just going to be a quick post to bring you up to date on what's going on...
My first class at Oakland University has been postponed by a teacher strike at the school...
The Michigan Works department has received all the paperwork they need for the grant they were saying I was approved for, but I haven't heard a peep out of them, and they don't like it when you call them. In the mean time, I got a student loan, paid for school this semester, books, and even bought myself a notebook computer.
I've been doing a fair amount of work for my former employer, though not enough to get me out of debt, or even really pay this month's bills.
I've got an intriguing offer from a certain friend of mine to be a part of a startup, and I've decided I'm going with it. More on this at a later time.
My nephew is now down in Fishburne Military School, and is already doing 100% better than he did last year in public school in Romulus, Michigan.
I'm really enjoying the closed beta of an upcoming PS3 shooter. It's not top of the line in graphics, concept, or anything really, but the combinations of what it does have are addictive to me.
We have a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes. It's dark outside. And we're wearing sunglasses.
My first class at Oakland University has been postponed by a teacher strike at the school...
The Michigan Works department has received all the paperwork they need for the grant they were saying I was approved for, but I haven't heard a peep out of them, and they don't like it when you call them. In the mean time, I got a student loan, paid for school this semester, books, and even bought myself a notebook computer.
I've been doing a fair amount of work for my former employer, though not enough to get me out of debt, or even really pay this month's bills.
I've got an intriguing offer from a certain friend of mine to be a part of a startup, and I've decided I'm going with it. More on this at a later time.
My nephew is now down in Fishburne Military School, and is already doing 100% better than he did last year in public school in Romulus, Michigan.
I'm really enjoying the closed beta of an upcoming PS3 shooter. It's not top of the line in graphics, concept, or anything really, but the combinations of what it does have are addictive to me.
We have a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes. It's dark outside. And we're wearing sunglasses.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Rainy Days
It sounds odd that one can miss rainy days or thunderstorms or knee deep snow, but when you grew up with these things you do tend to miss them when you've moved to the more tropical idea of paradise. I spent more than 11 years in the cities of California, because I wanted and needed to get out on my own, but also because I had a bad experience the winter before I left Michigan.
At first I didn't miss Michigan; it was at times a distant memory with half-remembered good times and the majority of my family. But as the years went by, I came to miss little things like the smell in the air during the summer rain, and the crispness of a cold winter day.
At first I didn't miss Michigan; it was at times a distant memory with half-remembered good times and the majority of my family. But as the years went by, I came to miss little things like the smell in the air during the summer rain, and the crispness of a cold winter day.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Mixed Signals
Ok, last week I told you about how my mother stated that I'm always too negative and that I need to think positively. That was when I told her I was going to apply for financial aide at Oakland University to make sure I can go, just in case the scholarship that I applied for with the Detroit Workforce Development Department fell through. That was then.
Just a few minutes ago, she told me that I should be sure to apply for financial aide through Oakland University so that I could make sure that I could go to school.
What the fuck?
When I'm looking to cover my bases, I'm too negative, but all of a sudden it's a good idea to have a back-up plan? Shit, I could have already filed the paperwork by now!
Just a few minutes ago, she told me that I should be sure to apply for financial aide through Oakland University so that I could make sure that I could go to school.
What the fuck?
When I'm looking to cover my bases, I'm too negative, but all of a sudden it's a good idea to have a back-up plan? Shit, I could have already filed the paperwork by now!
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Onward to Mars
Leave it to NASA, Buzz Aldrin, and NASA TV to remind me of my childhood dreams and my long suppressed desire to be involved with the space program. I just spent a few hours watching an Apollo XI lecture on NASA TV featuring a keynote address by Buzz Aldrin, and was inspired to post my ideas on getting to Mars. I've never told anyone this, but it was a secret objective of mine to become an astronaut when I applied for the Air Force Academy in high school (one of only two colleges I actually applied for in my senior year), and then later applied for and joined the Air Force R.O.T.C. at Michigan State University when I didn't get accepted into the A.F.A..
I wanted to be an astronaut so badly for so long that it was physically painful when I flunked out of M.S.U. after my second semester. (I didn't do well there because I was profoundly damaged by the loss of a close cousin and another close family member developing new medical issues.) I was depressed for two very good reasons, and felt the death of two dreams: being a fighter pilot and an astronaut. Nonetheless, I never passed up an opportunity to watch a shuttle launch, and I can still sit and stare at the NASA TV channel for hours.
Now, I have no illusions that I'll ever get to be an astronaut, but that doesn't mean I can't contribute in a meaningful way to the space program. Hundreds or thousands of Americans do on a daily basis. The problem I face is lack of access for submitting my ideas. So, I'm hoping that this post will some how, some way, make its way on to the monitor of someone that might find them useful in our push to Mars.
Mr. Aldrin stated that there was a 66 year interval between the Wright brothers' first flight and Apollo XI landing on the Moon, and that there should be the same interval between Apollo XI and a manned flight to Mars. He also stated that NASA had spent about 10% of its budget during the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs investing in new technology for the future, and that since then, the budget had been primarily directed towards running the current programs instead of developing new technology. I can't confirm or deny those statistics or statements, but I definitely think NASA and the United States as a whole should pull together, and develop a detailed oriented plan for getting to Mars. I also think that this effort should start with us, the United States, but evolve to include all nations interested in exploring Mars, and eventual colonization of that world.
While I don't have a complete, detailed set of steps to get there, here are my ideas for getting us to Mars and establishing a colony there:
Establish a Planet-wide Communications and Positioning Network
One of the more significant problems we currently have on Mars is communicating with the rovers and landers we currently have on the surface. To some extent, this problem has been lessened with the orbiters relaying signals to and from them ground-side robots when Mars' rotation would otherwise eliminate communications. However, any manned exploration of the planet will need to be able to maintain communications with Earth at all times, signal travel time notwithstanding.
To that end, and to enable any two planet bound explorers (human or robotic) to locate and communicate with each other, a network of communications and positioning satellites need to be placed in Mars orbit. Given the expense of launching a single satellite into Earth orbit, I would propose that a swarm/flock of micro- or nano- satellites be launched to fulfill this role. I would also propose that each of these satellites utilize ion drives similar to that used on the Deep Space I and Dawn probes some years ago. Given the small size of micro and nano satellites, I believe that an ion drive would be a much more efficient propulsion system and would be able to keep the satellites in orbit for a much longer period of time than conventional propellants.
The swarm should be developed to automatically accept new members, and be able to rebalance itself should one or more members be lost due to malfunction, space debris, or collision with other man-made or heavenly objects. This will require a certain amount of self sufficient artificial intelligence to be built into each satellite so that loss of any single node will not cripple the entire swarm.
The swarm would be primarily for Mars-local communications and positioning, and they would use two or more larger, more conventional satellites for relaying data to and from Earth. These larger satellites don't necessarily have to be the size of Earth orbiting communications satellites, but they would need to be able to store a large amount of in-transit data for retransmission in the event of communications failure (due to solar flares or other sources of interference), and should provide multiple channel, high bandwidth communications to and from Mars. These larger satellites would relay any and all communications to and from Mars probes, manned explorations, and the early days of any colonization. Similar satellites would need to be placed in Earth orbit for the same relaying purposes.
Automated Mining, Refining, and Fabrication Robots
One of the biggest problems Mars explorers and colonizers will face will be developing their habitat and processing resources into usable materials, whether for fuel or building materials. While the concept of terraforming Mars as a long term goal is at once appealing and terrifying. In the short term, 25-100 years (yeah, that's a long time in human years, but not even the blink of an eye geologically speaking), humans would need to build an outpost in which to dwell.
While we are technologically capable of building, sending, and assembling such a structure to Mars from Earth, it would be far less expensive I believe to design, build, and send robots capable of mining, refining, processing, and utilizing Mars native materials for this purpose.
To start, we would need to build a robot whose sole purpose was to unfold and manage a fairly large array of solar panels, and perhaps wind turbines to generate electricity for all other robots at the construction site. This power supplier would need to be able to keep the solar cells clean, and position them at the optimum angle to collect sunlight from dawn to dusk. I imagine such a robot as being a multi-legged beast to using some of the recent advances in flexible cheap solar cell technology. It would utilize simple legs in order to compensate for uneven terrain at the initial landing location. Separate or integrated wind turbines could be added to this power supplier to give an all weather, day or night power generation capability.
A mining robot would take care of clearing the outpost zone of loose rock and soil, and be capable of at least minimal landscaping activities such as leveling the soil and excavating larger rocks and digging small to medium pits for resource storage. The mining robot(s) primary purpose would be to gather raw material for the refining robot to break down into relatively pure constituent components: iron, nickel, gases and liquids.
The refining robot would probably be the single largest consumer of the electricity provided by the power supplier as it would electrically smelt materials provided by the mining robot(s) much as many refineries do here on Earth. Prior to applying its more destructive tools to any materials, it should first perform the scientifically accepted instruments for detecting life as we know it to the materials, and set any matching specimen aside for human examination. All other materials should be divided into categories depending on their composition: metals should be separated prior to smelting as much as possible, and further separated during the smelting process to enhance purity. Any gases released during the smelting process should be captured and distilled into their respective liquids, especially hydrogen and water. Storage of liquids and gases will probably pose the greatest challenge as leak-proof containers sent from Earth will initially be required. I'm uncertain whether it will be technically feasible to produce air-tight storage containers through automation on Mars without human assistance, however it is possible that this task might be resolvable prior to a manned mission to Mars within the targeted time frame. It should also be noted that in all likelihood, any smelted metals on Mars will likely contain some amount of carbon due to the high presence of carbon in the Martian atmosphere. This means that iron refining would likely produce at least a small percentage of low grade steel or carbon infused iron.
Once the smelting robot has done its job, metals would need to be cooled and preferably stored in pellet form in the storage pits dug by the mining robot(s). Each pit would be designated for a different metal, and that information would be stored redundantly in the mining, refining, and resource management robots. The resource management robots would be responsible for placing resources in the storage pits as well as retrieving them from those locations as well. Upon request they would be responsible for providing the desired resources to the smelter for a second round of smelting to produce targeted metals, such as alloy production.
The smelting robot would also produce sheets of metals of a desired width, length, and thickness for use by one or more production robots, which would cut, bend, shape, and weld the materials to produce the desired equipment, structure, and/or habitat. It would need the ability to check for leaks, vacuum the air out of containers and structures, and place them at a designated location. It will need to be able to fabricate parts large and small, and to be able to fill containers or structures with gases or liquids (for instance for storage of water, hydrogen, oxygen, etc.).
The fabricator will need to be able to produce both simple and complex mechanical parts, and be able to reclaim any waste materials for recycling through the smelter. For instance, the fabricator will need to be able to build the individual components for a valve, be able to assemble the valve, and place it into a larger part such as a pneumatic press. Similarly, it would need to be able to roll metal into a cylinder, seal the ends, place a valve on it, and pump out the trapped gas in order to make a proper storage tank for gases such as oxygen or hydrogen.
The final stage of fabrication should include laser etching a bar code or other machine readable code onto the produced item so that it can be properly identified by both machines and humans.
Summary
These are just a few ideas and generalities that I think would be useful in the exploration and eventual colonization of Mars, or any other world. Accurate navigation and world wide communication on any world will require satellites to perform these functions. In order to properly position robots in close proximity for establishing a foothold for humans will require precision navigation and communication both before and after planet-fall. An automated mining, refining, and production compound can provide not only the basic building materials and substances that human explorers might need, but reduce the overall cost of such a mission by readying those resources prior to the arrival of the explorers. Subsequent colonization efforts can then further utilize those resources to establish a long term human presence on the surface of another world.
These are just my thoughts but if they can be useful to NASA in the exploration of our solar system then I'd be proud to discuss them at length. Otherwise, please disregard them or use them for inspiration for your own ideas. Either way, I'd be interested to hear from anyone reading this.
I wanted to be an astronaut so badly for so long that it was physically painful when I flunked out of M.S.U. after my second semester. (I didn't do well there because I was profoundly damaged by the loss of a close cousin and another close family member developing new medical issues.) I was depressed for two very good reasons, and felt the death of two dreams: being a fighter pilot and an astronaut. Nonetheless, I never passed up an opportunity to watch a shuttle launch, and I can still sit and stare at the NASA TV channel for hours.
Now, I have no illusions that I'll ever get to be an astronaut, but that doesn't mean I can't contribute in a meaningful way to the space program. Hundreds or thousands of Americans do on a daily basis. The problem I face is lack of access for submitting my ideas. So, I'm hoping that this post will some how, some way, make its way on to the monitor of someone that might find them useful in our push to Mars.
Mr. Aldrin stated that there was a 66 year interval between the Wright brothers' first flight and Apollo XI landing on the Moon, and that there should be the same interval between Apollo XI and a manned flight to Mars. He also stated that NASA had spent about 10% of its budget during the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs investing in new technology for the future, and that since then, the budget had been primarily directed towards running the current programs instead of developing new technology. I can't confirm or deny those statistics or statements, but I definitely think NASA and the United States as a whole should pull together, and develop a detailed oriented plan for getting to Mars. I also think that this effort should start with us, the United States, but evolve to include all nations interested in exploring Mars, and eventual colonization of that world.
While I don't have a complete, detailed set of steps to get there, here are my ideas for getting us to Mars and establishing a colony there:
Establish a Planet-wide Communications and Positioning Network
One of the more significant problems we currently have on Mars is communicating with the rovers and landers we currently have on the surface. To some extent, this problem has been lessened with the orbiters relaying signals to and from them ground-side robots when Mars' rotation would otherwise eliminate communications. However, any manned exploration of the planet will need to be able to maintain communications with Earth at all times, signal travel time notwithstanding.
To that end, and to enable any two planet bound explorers (human or robotic) to locate and communicate with each other, a network of communications and positioning satellites need to be placed in Mars orbit. Given the expense of launching a single satellite into Earth orbit, I would propose that a swarm/flock of micro- or nano- satellites be launched to fulfill this role. I would also propose that each of these satellites utilize ion drives similar to that used on the Deep Space I and Dawn probes some years ago. Given the small size of micro and nano satellites, I believe that an ion drive would be a much more efficient propulsion system and would be able to keep the satellites in orbit for a much longer period of time than conventional propellants.
The swarm should be developed to automatically accept new members, and be able to rebalance itself should one or more members be lost due to malfunction, space debris, or collision with other man-made or heavenly objects. This will require a certain amount of self sufficient artificial intelligence to be built into each satellite so that loss of any single node will not cripple the entire swarm.
The swarm would be primarily for Mars-local communications and positioning, and they would use two or more larger, more conventional satellites for relaying data to and from Earth. These larger satellites don't necessarily have to be the size of Earth orbiting communications satellites, but they would need to be able to store a large amount of in-transit data for retransmission in the event of communications failure (due to solar flares or other sources of interference), and should provide multiple channel, high bandwidth communications to and from Mars. These larger satellites would relay any and all communications to and from Mars probes, manned explorations, and the early days of any colonization. Similar satellites would need to be placed in Earth orbit for the same relaying purposes.
Automated Mining, Refining, and Fabrication Robots
One of the biggest problems Mars explorers and colonizers will face will be developing their habitat and processing resources into usable materials, whether for fuel or building materials. While the concept of terraforming Mars as a long term goal is at once appealing and terrifying. In the short term, 25-100 years (yeah, that's a long time in human years, but not even the blink of an eye geologically speaking), humans would need to build an outpost in which to dwell.
While we are technologically capable of building, sending, and assembling such a structure to Mars from Earth, it would be far less expensive I believe to design, build, and send robots capable of mining, refining, processing, and utilizing Mars native materials for this purpose.
To start, we would need to build a robot whose sole purpose was to unfold and manage a fairly large array of solar panels, and perhaps wind turbines to generate electricity for all other robots at the construction site. This power supplier would need to be able to keep the solar cells clean, and position them at the optimum angle to collect sunlight from dawn to dusk. I imagine such a robot as being a multi-legged beast to using some of the recent advances in flexible cheap solar cell technology. It would utilize simple legs in order to compensate for uneven terrain at the initial landing location. Separate or integrated wind turbines could be added to this power supplier to give an all weather, day or night power generation capability.
A mining robot would take care of clearing the outpost zone of loose rock and soil, and be capable of at least minimal landscaping activities such as leveling the soil and excavating larger rocks and digging small to medium pits for resource storage. The mining robot(s) primary purpose would be to gather raw material for the refining robot to break down into relatively pure constituent components: iron, nickel, gases and liquids.
The refining robot would probably be the single largest consumer of the electricity provided by the power supplier as it would electrically smelt materials provided by the mining robot(s) much as many refineries do here on Earth. Prior to applying its more destructive tools to any materials, it should first perform the scientifically accepted instruments for detecting life as we know it to the materials, and set any matching specimen aside for human examination. All other materials should be divided into categories depending on their composition: metals should be separated prior to smelting as much as possible, and further separated during the smelting process to enhance purity. Any gases released during the smelting process should be captured and distilled into their respective liquids, especially hydrogen and water. Storage of liquids and gases will probably pose the greatest challenge as leak-proof containers sent from Earth will initially be required. I'm uncertain whether it will be technically feasible to produce air-tight storage containers through automation on Mars without human assistance, however it is possible that this task might be resolvable prior to a manned mission to Mars within the targeted time frame. It should also be noted that in all likelihood, any smelted metals on Mars will likely contain some amount of carbon due to the high presence of carbon in the Martian atmosphere. This means that iron refining would likely produce at least a small percentage of low grade steel or carbon infused iron.
Once the smelting robot has done its job, metals would need to be cooled and preferably stored in pellet form in the storage pits dug by the mining robot(s). Each pit would be designated for a different metal, and that information would be stored redundantly in the mining, refining, and resource management robots. The resource management robots would be responsible for placing resources in the storage pits as well as retrieving them from those locations as well. Upon request they would be responsible for providing the desired resources to the smelter for a second round of smelting to produce targeted metals, such as alloy production.
The smelting robot would also produce sheets of metals of a desired width, length, and thickness for use by one or more production robots, which would cut, bend, shape, and weld the materials to produce the desired equipment, structure, and/or habitat. It would need the ability to check for leaks, vacuum the air out of containers and structures, and place them at a designated location. It will need to be able to fabricate parts large and small, and to be able to fill containers or structures with gases or liquids (for instance for storage of water, hydrogen, oxygen, etc.).
The fabricator will need to be able to produce both simple and complex mechanical parts, and be able to reclaim any waste materials for recycling through the smelter. For instance, the fabricator will need to be able to build the individual components for a valve, be able to assemble the valve, and place it into a larger part such as a pneumatic press. Similarly, it would need to be able to roll metal into a cylinder, seal the ends, place a valve on it, and pump out the trapped gas in order to make a proper storage tank for gases such as oxygen or hydrogen.
The final stage of fabrication should include laser etching a bar code or other machine readable code onto the produced item so that it can be properly identified by both machines and humans.
Summary
These are just a few ideas and generalities that I think would be useful in the exploration and eventual colonization of Mars, or any other world. Accurate navigation and world wide communication on any world will require satellites to perform these functions. In order to properly position robots in close proximity for establishing a foothold for humans will require precision navigation and communication both before and after planet-fall. An automated mining, refining, and production compound can provide not only the basic building materials and substances that human explorers might need, but reduce the overall cost of such a mission by readying those resources prior to the arrival of the explorers. Subsequent colonization efforts can then further utilize those resources to establish a long term human presence on the surface of another world.
These are just my thoughts but if they can be useful to NASA in the exploration of our solar system then I'd be proud to discuss them at length. Otherwise, please disregard them or use them for inspiration for your own ideas. Either way, I'd be interested to hear from anyone reading this.
Staying Positive
We all know how tough life can be, and that sometimes it's really un-fucking-fair, but from now on, I'm going to try to stay positive instead of letting myself get dragged into the negativeness and pragmatism that I normally live in. As such, I deleted the "Wow... I'm Impressed" entry from this blog, and will try not to let another negative post make it here.
Obviously, at some point, something major and negative will happen, but I'm going to do my best to see the bright side of it, if there is one. If I can't, then if I decide to post about it at all, I'll just stick to the facts and try to leave my emotions out of the picture.
The reason this is coming about is that my mother this week stated that I was being too negative that I don't ever think positively. She said that after I told her that I was going to file for financial aide at Oakland University just in case the scholarship through the Detroit Workforce Development Department fell through. I looked at it as covering my bases to make sure that I could go to school this Fall, she looked at it as me expecting to not get the scholarship.
We didn't get into a real discussion on the issue, but obviously our perceptions were different. As a result, it's been on my mind all week, and I've put some thought in to it. Normally, I do try to prepare myself for the worst possible outcomes because it's been rare that anything in my life has ever gone according to plan, and even rarer for the best possible outcome to occur. So I've become pragmatic; I've tried to make sure that in the event of the worst possible outcome, that things will still be ok. Maybe I'm not being as positive as I could be, but repeated disappointments throughout my life have left me in a position where I don't want any more of them, and I stopped getting my hopes up.
This has got to change. So, I'm going to try to be positive once again. I'm going to try to get my hopes (and faith) up again, and rely on my God, skills and abilities, family and friends, and all other things to make things right.
So in that spirit, have a great day!
Obviously, at some point, something major and negative will happen, but I'm going to do my best to see the bright side of it, if there is one. If I can't, then if I decide to post about it at all, I'll just stick to the facts and try to leave my emotions out of the picture.
The reason this is coming about is that my mother this week stated that I was being too negative that I don't ever think positively. She said that after I told her that I was going to file for financial aide at Oakland University just in case the scholarship through the Detroit Workforce Development Department fell through. I looked at it as covering my bases to make sure that I could go to school this Fall, she looked at it as me expecting to not get the scholarship.
We didn't get into a real discussion on the issue, but obviously our perceptions were different. As a result, it's been on my mind all week, and I've put some thought in to it. Normally, I do try to prepare myself for the worst possible outcomes because it's been rare that anything in my life has ever gone according to plan, and even rarer for the best possible outcome to occur. So I've become pragmatic; I've tried to make sure that in the event of the worst possible outcome, that things will still be ok. Maybe I'm not being as positive as I could be, but repeated disappointments throughout my life have left me in a position where I don't want any more of them, and I stopped getting my hopes up.
This has got to change. So, I'm going to try to be positive once again. I'm going to try to get my hopes (and faith) up again, and rely on my God, skills and abilities, family and friends, and all other things to make things right.
So in that spirit, have a great day!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Officially a Student [Again]
Although I've known for about a week, thanks to the marvels of the web, I received my official acceptance letter from Oakland University today! What that means is that I can now take classes there in an attempt to get a degree in Cinema Studies; coincidentally a program they just set up.
I'm looking forward to going and getting down to business, but I'll admit that I'm scared of thw whispers that I'm sure to hear behind my back. Why will there be whispers? Simple: I'm twice as old as most of my fellow students. Being 37 isn't a handicap, and I really don't care what the other students might say, but I don't want to go through any emotional shit because of my age.
If I fuck up, I'm fine with them talking about me behind my back, but I don't need any age shit.
Any way, I think I'm finally ready to commit myself to school and getting it completed, degree and all. We'll see what the job field looks like in a couple of years when I start calling myself a screenwriter with a bachelor's degree.
I'm looking forward to going and getting down to business, but I'll admit that I'm scared of thw whispers that I'm sure to hear behind my back. Why will there be whispers? Simple: I'm twice as old as most of my fellow students. Being 37 isn't a handicap, and I really don't care what the other students might say, but I don't want to go through any emotional shit because of my age.
If I fuck up, I'm fine with them talking about me behind my back, but I don't need any age shit.
Any way, I think I'm finally ready to commit myself to school and getting it completed, degree and all. We'll see what the job field looks like in a couple of years when I start calling myself a screenwriter with a bachelor's degree.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
MGS4
You know, it's been about a year since I first completed Metal Gear Solid 4, but I just stumbled on some screen shots that brought a smile to my face... That game is just too awesome, and I think I have to go back through it again soon. (For about the 8th time.)
In this brief series of photos, you can see that I spent the time to knock out a fairly large group of guards with stun grenades and tranquillizer darts. I wanted to see how many I could render unconscious at one time, and it's apparently more than a couple...
Perhaps my only gripe with the AI was that it didn't wise up, and realize that I was there taking people out. Sure, the AI troops would wake each other up and remain cautious for a bit, but that never led them to look beneath the APC, and seldom did they look between the equipment pallets... Still, doing things like this allowed me to get away from killing everything that moved and somethings that didn't.
This of course makes me curious about the upcoming Metal Gear Solid titles: Peace Walker and whatever the heck the name of the other one was... It's being said that Peace Walker on the PSP will have Kojima's full attention in addition to having the MGS4 staff working on it, so I have no doubt that it will be an excellent game, but I really wonder how far they can push the PSP...
In all honesty, I really don't expect much out of the other title since it will be constrained to the limitations of the Xbox 360. Now, I'm not trying to throw hate at the 360... I own one, and I'm currently loving the hell out of Ghostbusters because Maxx, Tom, and Omar also own 360s and are playing it on that platform. Not to mention I love the hell out of Left 4 Dead, but the fact is the PlayStation 3 owns my heart. Not just for MGS4, but for Resistance 2, KillZone 2, LittleBigPlanet, and a fair number of other games I own for it. MGS4 made it clear to me that the PS3 is the superior platform, and frankly I haven't seen anything on the 360 that even comes close.
That said, this other title is going to be primarily action, rather than a lot of stealth, so I suspect that a lot of the game will be on the lines of a first or third person shooter, needing little subtlety or finesse as compared to other Metal Gear games. While I can handle that, and I'm not a purist, I would really much rather have the traditional stealth elements in the MGS series rather than have just another shooter. I have excellent shooters already, I don't necessarily need a MGS themed one. *COUGH*Metal Gear Online*COUGH*
Friday, July 10, 2009
Paperwork Sucks
For the last few weeks I've been trying hard to get the paperwork together for a scholarship to go back to school this Fall. Now twice this week I've travelled by bus and foot to turn in this paperwork and failed to get it accepted and off my hands.
The first time was because I arrived too late in the day to see a career planner which is a mandatory step in the application process. Today's failure was because federal guidelines meant that the faxed copy of some of my paperwork was unacceptable.
I'm already jumping through hoops to try to make this happen, do they really need to be on fire too?
The first time was because I arrived too late in the day to see a career planner which is a mandatory step in the application process. Today's failure was because federal guidelines meant that the faxed copy of some of my paperwork was unacceptable.
I'm already jumping through hoops to try to make this happen, do they really need to be on fire too?
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
beefcake! beefcake!
ok, I have no need to shout that and I don't really have anything to say, but I wanted to post something so there.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Apollo 11, 40 Years Later
This morning after finally dragging my ass out of bed, I ate breakfast while listening to the news. After getting tired of listening to still more Michael Jackson coverage, I switched to the NASA channel. Yes, they have a cable channel.
I hadn't yet given it any thought but was rather pleased to see some 60s footage of the Apollo program. Growing up in the 70s and 80s, I was obsessed like many with the space program, and it's still one of my primary interests. I never got to see these films when I was younger, so I find them fascinating.
All of a sudden it dawned on me that the Apollo 11 anniversary was just a few days away. Not just any anniversary, but the 40th! Holy shit!
While I'm not disappointed with the last 30 years NASA spent working on and with the shuttle, I am glad that they are once again looking towards manned exploration of the moons and plants of our solar system. In fact I'd say I'm one of the few people to say that the long break was probably the best things they could've done.
The reason is simple: we as a civilization, and NASA in particular, have advanced significantly in technology since the last moon landing. It is now possible to build better, safer space craft today than it was decades ago, and those craft will be significantly more advanced for less money (relatively speaking). A trip to Mars would have been significantly more dangerous in the 70s or 80s than it will be in 2020.
I just want to send my thanks and love out to NASA, it's employees, and the Apollo 11 crew for inspiring me and countless others.
I hadn't yet given it any thought but was rather pleased to see some 60s footage of the Apollo program. Growing up in the 70s and 80s, I was obsessed like many with the space program, and it's still one of my primary interests. I never got to see these films when I was younger, so I find them fascinating.
All of a sudden it dawned on me that the Apollo 11 anniversary was just a few days away. Not just any anniversary, but the 40th! Holy shit!
While I'm not disappointed with the last 30 years NASA spent working on and with the shuttle, I am glad that they are once again looking towards manned exploration of the moons and plants of our solar system. In fact I'd say I'm one of the few people to say that the long break was probably the best things they could've done.
The reason is simple: we as a civilization, and NASA in particular, have advanced significantly in technology since the last moon landing. It is now possible to build better, safer space craft today than it was decades ago, and those craft will be significantly more advanced for less money (relatively speaking). A trip to Mars would have been significantly more dangerous in the 70s or 80s than it will be in 2020.
I just want to send my thanks and love out to NASA, it's employees, and the Apollo 11 crew for inspiring me and countless others.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Mounting Confusion
Last year, for various reasons, I moved back to my home town of Detroit, Michigan, from the Los Angeles area. One of the key reasons being that I wanted to be here with my family as and after I went through my divorce.
For the most part, I've enjoyed being back though I miss my Cally friends, and do little other than sit in my house. I'm now in the process of getting enrolled at Oakland University, but I'm really beginning to feel like I don't belong here either.
Almost from the moment I got here, I've run into one problem or another, and I'm currently jobless, broke, and without any prospects. On the other hand, thank God, I don't have a car payment, and I don't have to worry about my next meal or the roof over my head.
Still, I'm beginning to think that it's time for me to move on. I'm not going back to L.A., but I don't know where else I could go. I haven't yet committed myself to leaving, but I'm finding it hard to want to stay.
For the most part, I've enjoyed being back though I miss my Cally friends, and do little other than sit in my house. I'm now in the process of getting enrolled at Oakland University, but I'm really beginning to feel like I don't belong here either.
Almost from the moment I got here, I've run into one problem or another, and I'm currently jobless, broke, and without any prospects. On the other hand, thank God, I don't have a car payment, and I don't have to worry about my next meal or the roof over my head.
Still, I'm beginning to think that it's time for me to move on. I'm not going back to L.A., but I don't know where else I could go. I haven't yet committed myself to leaving, but I'm finding it hard to want to stay.
Monday, June 22, 2009
I Need Change
Today is my 37th birthday.
In my life I have gone many places, done many things, but ultimately, I have accomplished very little. I have been to and through most of the 48 continental states in the U.S., went to Japan when I was in high school, been married for 8 years, and I have a nearly 3 year old son. But as far as accomplishments are concerned, I can only say that I graduated from high school, 19 years ago.
I need a change. I need a career, not a job. I need to find the love of my life, not just a woman that will love me for a while. I need to be successful.
In my life I have gone many places, done many things, but ultimately, I have accomplished very little. I have been to and through most of the 48 continental states in the U.S., went to Japan when I was in high school, been married for 8 years, and I have a nearly 3 year old son. But as far as accomplishments are concerned, I can only say that I graduated from high school, 19 years ago.
I need a change. I need a career, not a job. I need to find the love of my life, not just a woman that will love me for a while. I need to be successful.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Great Idea!
In my lifetime of making critical tactical errors with my life, I have occasionally managed to do the right thing at the right time. Years ago, I managed to graduate from high school on time despite failing economics in the first semester. I managed to get hired at Be Incorporated just as my life at Scantron was really beginning to fall apart. And through it all, I've managed to acquire some kick ass, if admittedly strange, friends; some of which are closer to me than most of my blood relatives.
However, I have managed to screw myself over with some pretty horrible jobs. I'm not going to name names or go into any details, but in all honesty, I've hated my last three jobs though the last one started out pretty well.
To bring you slightly up to speed, I decided at the end of last year while working on a project for my now former employer, that I was going to quit. The project's requirements kept shifting as I was doing the development work, and it seemed like every time I completed a section of it, the client would change their minds on what they wanted. Needless to say I got pissed off because there wasn't a damned thing I could do about it. I needed the money, I did the job. Months later when they wanted things changed significantly again, I refused, but only because technically I was no longer an employee of the company I had worked for: I was now doing work as needed as an independent contractor. That's not to say I had a contract, but I wasn't on the books as an employee any more.
This working arrangement was my boss's idea since he wasn't getting paid regularly by his clients any more, and he couldn't afford to keep me around as a full time employee. Or so he said. So I agreed to the new terms, but warned him that I was going to have to look for other employment to meet my needs. I dropped from making $653 per week down to maybe $100 if I was lucky, and I was almost never paid on time.
This kept pissing me off, more and more, and even though I had decided to quit my job already, I didn't because I needed what little money was coming in.
Two weeks ago it all came to a head. I couldn't take the bullshit I was being handed any more (yes, lots of details have been left out), and I quit last week.
So, now I officially have no job, no income, and no money. I have bills coming due, and frankly I don't know what the hell to do. I'm really hoping and praying for a miracle while I sit here and apply for jobs. God, if you're listening, I need your flood of blessings that Joel Osteen raved about!
I've applied to some good jobs, ones that I believe I can get, but I have this underlying fear that I could be out of work for months again... It was another great idea of mine to quit my job in the middle of a recession, in the state with the highest unemployment rate in the country!
However, I have managed to screw myself over with some pretty horrible jobs. I'm not going to name names or go into any details, but in all honesty, I've hated my last three jobs though the last one started out pretty well.
To bring you slightly up to speed, I decided at the end of last year while working on a project for my now former employer, that I was going to quit. The project's requirements kept shifting as I was doing the development work, and it seemed like every time I completed a section of it, the client would change their minds on what they wanted. Needless to say I got pissed off because there wasn't a damned thing I could do about it. I needed the money, I did the job. Months later when they wanted things changed significantly again, I refused, but only because technically I was no longer an employee of the company I had worked for: I was now doing work as needed as an independent contractor. That's not to say I had a contract, but I wasn't on the books as an employee any more.
This working arrangement was my boss's idea since he wasn't getting paid regularly by his clients any more, and he couldn't afford to keep me around as a full time employee. Or so he said. So I agreed to the new terms, but warned him that I was going to have to look for other employment to meet my needs. I dropped from making $653 per week down to maybe $100 if I was lucky, and I was almost never paid on time.
This kept pissing me off, more and more, and even though I had decided to quit my job already, I didn't because I needed what little money was coming in.
Two weeks ago it all came to a head. I couldn't take the bullshit I was being handed any more (yes, lots of details have been left out), and I quit last week.
So, now I officially have no job, no income, and no money. I have bills coming due, and frankly I don't know what the hell to do. I'm really hoping and praying for a miracle while I sit here and apply for jobs. God, if you're listening, I need your flood of blessings that Joel Osteen raved about!
I've applied to some good jobs, ones that I believe I can get, but I have this underlying fear that I could be out of work for months again... It was another great idea of mine to quit my job in the middle of a recession, in the state with the highest unemployment rate in the country!
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Now I went and done it...
Ok, I decided to be a bit brash last night, and I'm sure I'm going to regret it at some point. For the moment at least, I don't care... I'm glad I did it...
What did I do? Simple... I posted a story --- called "A Treatise on Fate" --- I worked on about 12 years ago on my writing blog. Like I said, I'm probably going to regret it some day; some body out there is probably going to plagerize it and claim it's theirs. A good part of me would like to say I'd just laugh it off, because I'd know the truth and I want to share that work at least. But the truth is, I know that I'd be insanely jealous and angry if someone ripped off my work, and made a fortune on it...
Well, we'll see how it plays out one day.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Life as a Newly Single Man...
First off, let me say that this is not my first blog. Heck, right now I have blogs just about everywhere... I seem to be addicted to them. Well, to creating them at least. I have a blog on my personal site that I wrote, at MySpace, and one specifically for writing. And all of that is in addition to my journal that is offline... You can probably learn more about me than I ever wanted to let be known, or than you would ever want to know... So why start another one?
Why the hell not? I'm reasonably young, fairly intelligent, and definitely bored with my current life. I want a new life, and I'm working on it.
A few good friends and I are working on a top secret project. Ok, it's not top secret, but I'm not going to tell you about it because it would ruin the mood. The simple truth is that it's a project for us to let our hair down (so to speak, since none of us has long hair), relax, and have fun with each other, and hopefully a ton of other people. It's probably a few weeks away from being ready, but I'm sure that I'll mention it again at some point. If I continue to write entries here.
So why create this blog at all? Well, one of those very same friends recently set up a blog here, and I was curious if I'd be able to direct a domain name I purchased several years ago to his new home on the web. I had created a web site for him, and he never quite used it for anything, even though he had me post a fair amount of his artwork to it. So now that he's got a blog here and posting his artwork here, I wanted to know if he wanted me to redirect his domain name. The answer, simply, is yes, I could. I had to find out by creating an account here...
This is not to say that this site is unwanted; like I said, I seem to be addicted to expressing myself in blogs... But I really don't know how often I will make it back this way.
So, enough about that....
As the title of this little blog suggests, I'm a newly single man, coming out of 8 years of marriage. I'm not going to talk about that here, but I'm going to say that I am looking for a new leading lady to spend some time with. All potential applicants can apply here... I do have a profile up on a leading dating site, but I'm not going to link to it, nor am I going to state which one because I want a separate and hopefully unbiased backup plan...
Drop me a comment or two if you're curious about this youngish Detroiter...
Why the hell not? I'm reasonably young, fairly intelligent, and definitely bored with my current life. I want a new life, and I'm working on it.
A few good friends and I are working on a top secret project. Ok, it's not top secret, but I'm not going to tell you about it because it would ruin the mood. The simple truth is that it's a project for us to let our hair down (so to speak, since none of us has long hair), relax, and have fun with each other, and hopefully a ton of other people. It's probably a few weeks away from being ready, but I'm sure that I'll mention it again at some point. If I continue to write entries here.
So why create this blog at all? Well, one of those very same friends recently set up a blog here, and I was curious if I'd be able to direct a domain name I purchased several years ago to his new home on the web. I had created a web site for him, and he never quite used it for anything, even though he had me post a fair amount of his artwork to it. So now that he's got a blog here and posting his artwork here, I wanted to know if he wanted me to redirect his domain name. The answer, simply, is yes, I could. I had to find out by creating an account here...
This is not to say that this site is unwanted; like I said, I seem to be addicted to expressing myself in blogs... But I really don't know how often I will make it back this way.
So, enough about that....
As the title of this little blog suggests, I'm a newly single man, coming out of 8 years of marriage. I'm not going to talk about that here, but I'm going to say that I am looking for a new leading lady to spend some time with. All potential applicants can apply here... I do have a profile up on a leading dating site, but I'm not going to link to it, nor am I going to state which one because I want a separate and hopefully unbiased backup plan...
Drop me a comment or two if you're curious about this youngish Detroiter...
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